Rivertown in Opelika is a bait and switch scam. They'll take your copay, actually lie about whether or not you'll be able to see a doctor, and after spitting out about 100 questions they've read from a computer screen, a nurse will mindlessly send a prescription of the first medication she reads from some program she's using. Minimal eye contact. No "What I hear you saying is, ___." No "How're you feeling?" No "So I think that what you're experiencing may be a combination of ___ and ___, but let's explore this further." None of that. Just copay, script, prescription. What a great evil it is to treat those who need mental help most like cattle with wallets. I think it's insane that you explicitly ask for explanation as to your mental health, be plainly denied it, and be prescribed medication that alters your mental state all in around 30 minutes.
Dr. Schroff is not running a psychiatric practice at the Opelika location, he is running a business, and a brutish, plainly-scam-like one at that. I truly have no positive way of spinning my experience at Rivertown Psychiatry in Opelika. Dr. Schroff, if you are reading this, you should be ashamed of how far your "practice" has fallen from being anything like a caring, thoughtful practice.
Rivertown, answer me this: Are my expectations too high? or is your standard too low?
Unkind, thoughtless, and downright uncaring. I listed symptoms and my expectations with nuance over the phone and on paper on 3 separate occasions. I was told over the phone and in person I would be able to see a psychiatrist and receive nuanced, personal treatment and receive explanation for my condition before being prescribed medication. I did not see a psychiatrist and was asked 100 scripted questions by a nurse in around 10 minutes before having two medication names spat at me with little context or explanation, even after explicitly asking for it. Don't go here. They do more harm than good. I am sorry that our medical system in the United States is so poor, but it shouldn't mean we resort to pricks looking to fill their pockets on the dime of the suffering middle and lower class. Save up your money and take it somewhere else! :) If even one person is saved the time, money, effort, and heartache of visiting this place, writing this essay of a review will be worth it. An hour of my time is worth saving you, stranger.
Although the cleanliness, staff, ease of access, and other aesthetic factors of this location were all sub-par, I will (try to) avoid commenting on them for the sake of addressing the problem I technically came to be treated for: "caring" psychiatric help, someone willing to provide some explanation for my symptoms and explore treatment WITH me. I was promised that they would address that goal, but did not follow up in the slightest.
1.) Rivertown is fundamentally dishonest.
The mission statement that this company has plastered clearly means absolutely nothing to them. Rivertown was not "compassionate," nor "proffessional," nor "caring " in their treatment. I spent several minutes over the phone giving a nuanced, vulnerable explanation of my symptoms, and asked for a transparent answer as to whether or not:
A) I would be able to see a psychiatrist and,
B) They could for a fact provide me with psychiatric help with an emphasis on OCD and therapeutic, explanatory approach.
Neither promise was fulfilled.
After being questioned during an intake by a front-desk employee, I asked "Will I 100% be able to be seen by the psychiatrist today." I was plainly told "Yes, you will." I did not see a doctor. Why lie? Why not say your doctor is not actually at this location? Why not mention that when I called and explicitly asked in order to avoid this exact situation? It's truly incredible how brutish this joke of a practice is. Fine, take my college-student-income-based $60 copay, 2 hours of my time, and give me 100 robotic questions and a heartless prescription in return.
There would be less a problem if I was told at any point in the process that Rivertown is not what I was looking for. The problem is that I wasn't. I spoke on the phone 3 times with them, wrote a detailed description online in their intake form, specifically stating that I wanted to see someone who could address my problem in a thoughtful way. I don't think they even looked at it. If they did see it, that only makes the situation more incriminating, because they would have clearly read the transparent message of a hurting college student and chose to follow up with heartless "healthcare" anyway. They could have just turned me away and saved me time and money.
Full review: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1CaIMxPM_4FLvJkvp1prDm8ZN8P05rsE3IJYkGY5YnIk/edit?usp=sharing read more
